How To Deal With Project Creep
Sometimes you get a freelance job where what you think is the job isn’t the job.
You take on a simple job, and it seems to never end. It’s tougher than you thought, takes longer than you thought or the client just keeps adding stuff to the project and you don’t know how to effectively say “no more.”
Well after reading this article, you’ll know exactly what to do in a wide variety of situations regarding this.
Let’s get to it.
The Client Is Knowingly Trying To Get More Work Out Of You
Sometimes, you’ll have a “project creep” client who says, “Hey… can you do this simple job for me.”
Then, after you’re finished, they’ll say, “Hey… can you just add this thing?”
You need to clearly define what you’ll do, when you’ll do it and what it will cost.
This doesn’t have to be some super-legally-worded document, but it has to exist as an agreement.
For most of my projects, I do exactly the above. I’ll send an email saying, “To clarify; we’ve agreed I’ll do this, that and that. Here’s the timeline. Let me know if you need any amendments, otherwise I’ll take this as an agreement and we’ll be ready to proceed.”
Something like that makes everything clear and official, and is used when a person says, “But you said you’d do X.”
Just the act of doing the above will make most clients less likely to push their luck, because believe me, most freelancers aren’t professional enough to do this.
Let’s say though you’re reading this article halfway through working with someone like this.
At the next possible opportunity, do the above. Make it clear from here out.
Once you’ve made the terms clear, don’t be afraid to say, “This isn’t part of the original agreement.” Then either, “I’m happy to do it but it’ll cost X” or some variation of, “I can’t do this at this time but we can review later or I can forward you to a friend of mine.”
The Client Doesn’t Know What They’re Talking About And Adds To The Job
A lot of people you work with don’t understand the job you do, and that’s why they hire you. They’re not trying to rip you off, but they don’t understand that certain things are harder than they look.
“Hey… thanks for this website you built me. Could you just help me get it to the top of Google as well?”
When dealing with this type of client:
- First step is to do the above section. Clarify and create a set of benchmarks for your project
- Explain that you do/don’t provide the service they’re requesting
- Explain why this isn’t in the job description
- Then most importantly… give them options
The last point will make or break you. If you can’t do a job, don’t try to “bodge it” and if you’re telling someone, “No you can’t have it,” then you must funnel them to avoid them deciding to get angry and leave you negative feedback or not pay you or something.
The Job Is Bigger/More Difficult Than You Quoted
I’m of the general opinion that if you misquote someone at the beginning of a project, then you should suck it up.
There’s nothing that’ll dent your reputation quicker than saying, “Actually… this job is going to be tougher than I thought.”
It demonstrates a lack of knowledge and people –rightly or wrongly – are going to assume you’re taking them for more money.
So in most cases, if you say, “this’ll take five hours” and it takes you six… suck it up and use the time taken to project on future projects for next time.
That said, sometimes a project is tougher than you can reasonably have expected. An example being a website fix where it turns out some moron web designer has created a monster of bad coding.
“Can you change the colour of my website?” changes from an hour’s job to some Herculean task.
Now, this is why you follow the advice in the above section and make sure you know the complexity of the project before you start, but let’s assume you’re doing this for a friend or something.
Be honest with your client and say, “This is more complex than I thought… how would you like to proceed?”
Do this before you take the next step, and plan for several outcomes:
- They want you to wrap up the job ignoring the error to the original schedule
- They want you to fix the job but have no extra budget
- Your client is willing to extend the budget and wants you to do it
Each of these will have a different outcome, but they’re pretty self-explanatory. The point here is that you tell them and give them the options, letting them decide. This is how to save your reputation.
Final Thoughts
A lot of this comes down to some fundamental stuff:
- Know your boundaries
- Set them at the beginning of a project and clarify them if needed
- When things are going awry, have a back-up plan
- Always think about funnelling your customers to where you want them to go
If you do the above, you should avoid project creep, clients trying to extort you for more work and upsetting good clients who don’t just know when enough is enough.